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I have been running a few wire edm's at work for a few years including a big Fanuc Robocut 600. Here is just a few surgestions . 1.To prevent wire snaps your are looking at a movement speed (speed of cut) of about 0.1-0.5mm per minute depending on what your are cutting and the thickness. 2. Speed up the speed of your wire (speed at wich the wire pass thru the cut , is being used) to 4-6meters per minutes. The faster the wire the cleaner and smoother the cut. 3. If your are using a large cap on your output power lines, back off on the size, this is scalpel not a broadsword like a sinker edm the initial large spark will snap the wire. 4. Current, from what I have seen you do not need more that 5amp on that wire, again scalpel not broadsword. 4.1 If I was cutting that round bar on the fanuc, typical setting would be tavel speed I would get 0.3mm per minute, wire speed of 8m/min, current 3amp. With a voltage of about 80v. keep in mind the wire cut moves forward and back depending on the gap voltage reading, you cannot just set it at a speed and plouge into the material. 5. Try swappingthe polarity of the output line, it sounds stupid but is does matter. I designed my own Small hole edm under the name Radnor Technologies a few years back and if I remember correctly I used - on the electrode and + on the work piece this results in a quick material removal rate but eats your electrode for breakfast. In your case with the wire that would be bad. 6. Remember when in doubt flush flush flush loose carbon can mess with your cut. Here is just a few other surgestions not related to the wire snaps. 1. Filter your water else things goe pear shaped very quickly. the 20 inch big blue spun polyprop filters used for home water systems works well. Fit a 10 micron filter the 5 micron does not last very long. The fanuc has a hugh 5micron filter as standard. Aluminium will clog a filter like you will not believe. 2.Deionize the water if your want to cut for longer than a few minutes. The waters optimal resistance should be 70 kilo ohm per cm2. Doin ght deionizing is easy, you buy the dionizing resin (small balls) from the same place that sells the filters, normally in a 25Kg bag. It is in a bucket with a inlet and outlet. Let the outlet drain into your tank and hook up a pump to the inlet to switch on when the resistanc is below 60K. This is a easy job for a Nano with a ADC and 2 probes on the water, we used 2 stainless rods with a surface area of 1cm2 3.The rewinder unless you want to try and reuse the wire... bad idea... ditch the roll winder just make a puller that pulls the wire and dumps it in a box, this is what the fanuc does. Some other brands chops the wire wich will be better since it takes less space. Hope this helps, all and all great project I wish you the best of luck and look forward to the next video... subscribed 🙂

It’s your spark generator. BAXEDM makes a modern one, but EDM has been around wwii and you can find some patents that basically use a big resistor for good current control. Most switching power supplies have poor “instant” current control, but A simple resistor should be smooth. You also need feedback between controller and current generator, water conductivity increases as you cut.

You used proper hardware, you soldered everything, and you didn’t use any hot glue. As an engineer, myself, this brought a tear to my eye. I’m so tired of people holding their projects together, with hot glue and a prayer. Then, they wonder why nothing works, or keeps falling apart. You, sir, have gained another subscriber. 👍😃

This project greatly reduces the barriers to entry for the hobbyist.. Thank you and I will be anxiously awaiting your next video on this project.

It's pretty amazing how much more people can accomplish now that 3d printers and arduino boards are so popular/affordable. Kids these days dont realize how good they have it with all the technology at their fingertips... I wish all this stuff existed when I was a kid because I would be so many years ahead of where I am now.

That was so fun! Looking forward to seeing the solution!

Dude, this is literally the most amazing project I’ve seen in the past year. And your CNC mill?!?! That thing looks seriously impressive. Incredible engineering!

That looks impressive! I'm also currently working on a wire EDM machine and think your project is very inspiring. Thanks for sharing.

I just search in google for if someone has made a hobby wire EDM machine and I see you just released this yesterday! take my sub

I really like the content! It has enough information to explain what the thought behind the process is, good visuals, and some light humor. Can't wait to see this project evolve.

Awesome project guys ! Thank you for sharing !

Love how open this guy is with the shortcomings of the design. very humble, I respect that.

I would love more in depth videos like this! Keep up the good work guys😃

Absolutely amazing build! Keep it up! That's top notch engineering.

This brings me back a few years back when I was interning at a metalwork company where I was operating a wire EDM. It was boring as heck because the whole morning we would set up 1 or 2 plates and then we wait for them to cut finish in the next 3 days. I was setting up the parts too fast that the full time guys told me to slow down so that it will look I'm doing work. I find it really counter intuvtive. I wanted to learn more but they didn't let me because I'm only interning for 3 months. What great memory that was.

Its great to see a Canadian person doing this kind of DIY and education! Keep up the great work! Especially sharing your parts and designs! I hope to one day make all of these cool machines you have! Thank you!

Awesome build and great video presentation. This video is one of the reasons why I liked and subscribed ages ago. Keep up the great work. Looking forward to more.

Beautiful work. I developed a wired Edm in my garage. After a lot of study I learned the fundamental concepts so that the wire does not break. The open and closed load time must be critically controlled for high cutting efficiency. I achieved 90% erosion on the part versus 10% erosion on the electrode or wire. The junction between the advance pulse and the cutting and loading time is the key point for perfect operation. On my channel there is a small video cutting with penetration electrode. When possible I will make some EDM Wire videos to maybe help friends who follow the same path. A hug and good projects broo.

Nicely done! I have no doubt you guys will get this done. Great video, as always.

this is really great. thanks for publishing it i've been wanting a wire edm but no time to design. you rock.

Wow! That’s an awesome wire machine build you’ve created there! Well done! I’ve built solid sink EDM machines in the past which I find are pretty easy to build in comparison to this especially as my machine design is old school and doesn’t require any code to work etc. I don’t know your power generator design but it does need to be different from a solid sink pulse EDM generator, it needs to be more like an RC design with a sine wave type output. This type of generator gives a superior surface finish but the electrode wear rate is very high which is not a problem on wire EDM as the electrode is constantly being replaced. You could try placing a low value capacitor across the output leads to emulate this more but you might need a generator redesign. Also your wire feed rate is too slow it needs to be around 8m/min with a cutting speed of 3 or 4mm/min and your software needs to be able to pause and reverse the g code if there’s a short circuit etc which Mach3 can’t do, but I believe Linux CNC can and it’s free software.

You guys have a great channel. Love watching each new upload

I have been wanting to build one! Can't wait to start!

Excellent video. I own 2 Agie wire machines and you have it nailed. Awesome work can’t wait to see your next iteration.

Just found this channel, great content. Interesting builds, keep them coming.

got my sub for the awesome video and got my like and bell for offering the parts for sale but also the prints for free thats dope good on you guys! its refreshing to see people actually wanting to share and teach others instead of just trying to grab as much cash as quickly as they possibly can

You have put together a great project! I look forward to seeing your success!

EDMing is so cool. Great description of how it works. One of our operating companies has several EDM machines. They love it.

Thanks for all the awesome videos!

The wire is snapping because of the lack of a real spark generator, bax edm makes one, but thats about it, spark generators are a serious technology and not really something you can buy off a shelf.

I almost have no idea what he's making, but I kept watching because the design and building process was so interesting.

What kind of genius sorcery is this?.. Not the wire edm, that's easy. But the design.. My god man, Big Brain!

In the late 1970s I learned to operate one of the first Wire EDM machines in the US. It was a Elox 100 with 2 axis Fanuc NC that was commanded by paper tape with punched holes. This was so high tech at the time that our tool & die shop became a stop for VIP visits to our city. Wire EDM machines have advanced a very long way from the Elox 100. Although many decades have permitted the concepts and components to become more normal I am blown away by the idea of an individual being able to DIY their own wire EDM machine. Very kewl and I'm impressed and envious of any of you that have the ability, resources and space to do this at home. Awesome.

I can see were you got your inspiration from, looks very familiar :-) I can give you a ton of advice if you are interested. There is a long list of improvements to be made on your current design before you can make any wire EDM cuts, and a very long list before you can make high speed efficient and accurate cuts. Feel free to contact me.

This is amazing! Its very inspriring what one can do with a garage full of tools and the internet.

You have some next level projects, really great stuff! I've been dreaming of a home EDM machine.

I am really impressed with your toy. I believe the current and feed rate are too high. I do not know your power supply frequency but if it is like straight DC voltage you probably want to back it way off to not exceed 1/4 amp (maybe 30-40 volts, this has some connection to the frequency of the power supply) and then drive forward really slowly. Our first machine was less than 30 mm per hour in 25 mm material. I believe the frequency was about 2000 HZ and the machine had a vibrator on the wire to help keep the wire from shorting. This was before adaptive control was available so you have to keep the feedrate below the shorting speed. The wire should never touch the workpiece but you should try to maintain a spark gap of about .025-.050 mm. Additionally if the wire is not held tightly it will bow, which will be evident when all your sharpe corners look washed out.... You can get other weirdness. S-shaped walls. Almost all the current machines are capable of backing up if they hit the workpiece and short out, turn power off, and will not reapply power until the short clears. (most macines have a short circuit sensor for that. They first thing I would suggest is to go to a v-style groove for your guides. Something hard and permanent would be preferred but you could cut a v-groove in a carbide pin. Or if you really clever maybe a carbide cutting tool. Ultimatley, something non-conductive and wear-resistant would be you best bet. Using your roller and small hole you are also; going to EDM your bearing, eventually it will not run round, and the small hole will eventually enlarge especially after soemtime in the water as the metal parts become part of the curcuit. Aslo as an asiide the small rollers are really hard on the wire. Most of the production machines don't have small diameter tight rollers because it puts a bend into teh wire. If you unroll five feet of wire it should go almost straight to the floor without any cbvious stress. If the wire tends to lean in a direction like it has been on the roll too long it can cause the s-shape along the wall of your cutting path. If you can finally circulate water and can pump it coaxially along the wire it will help flush the cut slot (but only after you have entered the material) and you can pick up a small amout of speed. Good luck.

I wonder, if the power supplies for wire EDM and die-based EDM should be completely different.. I'm pulling this out of my ... but it seems that for die-based EDM high current is ok, but for wire EDM current and feed speed should be really low, while the voltage is much higher. Like barely touching surface to create a bunch of tiny sparks, instead of completely rubbing against the surface. P.S. Props for sweet cad skills. Good CAD skills feels like super power (I'm late to the party, but I'm learning this now).

You guys are awesome providing this knowledge for free I couldn't have subbd any quicker!!!

Any progress this is for sure super interesting!

I think the problem is with the motion control. The wire shouldn't touch the workpiece, the motion should stop right before touching it, or sometimes even reverse the path when the wire gets stuck to the metal. You need a feedback loop, that measures voltage between the positive and negative leads ( the wire and the workpiece). Or perhaps a powersupply that limits the current when the wire touches the metal. No need to control the speed of the wire spooling, I've seen machines with constant wire feed rate, the only downside of that is that you are wasting wire

Just to be clear. There were tons of test made that said making parts with full infill does not make the part as strong as you think. Its all about how many walls you use and what kind of infill pattern you use. Gyroid 30% does the trick everytime. And well wall count is up to you

First time watching your videos. Amazing content. Subscribed

Neat design and very interesting build. Thank you for posting this.

One way to solve this sort of wire break issue is with closed-loop speed control based on the cutting voltage/current, so the machine can automatically adjust the feed rate as cutting conditions change -- slowing down when the current increases due to more material thickness and worse flushing. You should also plan on treating those two idler ball bearings as consumables requiring regular replacement, since you're passing all of your cutting current through them and will be eroding their rolling contact area over time. They're certainly cheap enough to be treated as consumable, after all. (If you do want a contact roller that won't need replacement though, I'd recommend a mercury slip ring bearing like a Mercotac 205.)

Can't wait to see you guys get this licked, looking forward to the part 2! Any plans for a DIY laser sintering metal powder 3d printer?

Cool project, great editing, thanks!

Excellent work guys!

Excellent Build. To avoid wire breaking try using arc voltage/current as feedback to determine axis feed rate instead of a fixed feedrate .Similar to THC on plasma.

Absolutely great project! I really like it. I think your problem with the wire snapping is mostly related to your spark generator. Just from the sound of the sparks I assume that you have very high peak currents (>50A) and probably no short circuit detection to switch off the current in case of a short (touching workpiece or simply having a conducive particle in spark gap). This might be acceptable for a sinker EDM since it 'only' increases your electrode wear, but for a wire EDM it leads to an immediate breakage of the wire. I built an electronic EDM spark generator some time ago (which I so far only used in an prototype sinker application). The sparks sound much less aggressive and more uniform if you have a proper short circuit detection and current control. If you have the chance take a measurement with an oscilloscope either with a high frequency current clamp or carefully insert a shunt resistor in the circuit to visualize the current (but dont blow up your system/scope). Another thing is that you need a feedback loop for your feed which is based on the spark gap (breakdown voltage or statistics between 'open circit'/'good sparks'/'short circuits'). Not having that, your feed rate of 1mm/min seems to be very aggressive in my opinion. Also I feel that your wire speed is very low compared to professional machines. Seeing how fast industrial machines feed the wire in combination with the cost of those spools was the main reason why I never continued to build a wire EDM even though that would be a very useful tool. Keep up your content!

Great project! Looking forward to see it working!

Great channel. I like the longer format as well. More info is not a bad thing. Great job.

So I’m watching this video thinking you need to have a sinker Edm machine and bam! You made one of those already. Both are on my list but I do need hellish accuracy so don’t know if I can do it diy. That said, for the cost of these systems, if you can work within their tolerances then this is golden!

Awesome! As your power supply gets more sophisticated you’re going to need to shield those strain gauges and their wiring. Also using set screws to transfer torque to cylindrical shafts is bad practice. Keep up the great work!

Man brilliant work your attention to detail and quality of work is art for sure. Thank you for sharing this my friend !!!

Very impressive build.

Yeah Filter the water down to about 10 micron (You can use a pool sand filter, but use 10 micron cotton instead of sand), also maybe pump the water through deionization beads to keep the conductivity of the water more stable (A little table salt helps, but just a pinch. Also there is a common saying in Wire EDM "Flushing, flushing and flushing", its important to flush away that residue quickly, flushing is key.

Well your on the right track. Coming from an industrial standpoint, your wire feed is way too slow, your cut feed is too fast and your flushing pressure is way too low, your not controlling the resistance of the DI fluid. Also oddly enough round stock is actually pretty hard to cut in an edm, relatively speaking. Since it is not a constant thickness they resistance from the part is constantly changing and thus your settings technically should be as well. Add to that the DI flow around the round stock which will actually divert the DI Fluid away from the cut and thus make it less effective. Also depending on the grade of stainless it may have a rather high resistance rating which will make it more difficult to cut, something like brass or aluminum with a lower resistance rating may be a better start point. Your excessive feed rate is obvious from the deflection of the wire. As weird as it sounds the wire should never actually touch the part during the cut. So seeing it bow before it breaks is an obvious sign. There should always be a "spark gap" between the wire and the detail, the DI fluid will transfer the current to the part. Which brings up another point, your water may be too pure and not passing enough current. Industrial machines have sensors and use filtration and DI resins to keep the resistance level of the water very narrow window. Ignoring all the potential resistance changes from passing the current thru a bearing, the contacts are sacrificial. Unless you want to be replaceing the bearing all the time you really should make the contacts a separate piece. A cheap 6mm carbide endmill trapped in an aluminum block a few mils in the wire path would be an easy cheap option. Also it is good to have them as close to the wire guides as possible as the further they are apart the more resistance you have in the wire, and industrial machines will generally have them in the low pressure flushing to increase voltage transfer and keep the wire and contact cool. May want to consider getting some coated wire. The wire cost more and will cause more wear on the system but it works better in poor cut conditions, which is pretty much the best you will see on a DIY machine, so it will give you a bit more wiggle room on dialing in your settings.

Love the channel boys. Sending love from Asheville, NC!

That is absolutely marvelous, and I just can't resist the urge to build something similar, but perhaps not quite so elegant :) .

I guess those stepper will be reused in other projects, but they are way overkill for this project. The smallest Nema17 would work as good. Just in case someone wants to build this project. They can get away with 30$ instead of 300$. I like the design, can't wait to see it working!

Considering the value of information and experience i get from this channel you gave me no choice but to ... subscribe immediately. Looking forward to learn a lot. Thank you so much !

Impressive DIY project Thanks for sharing your experiences with all of us :-)

Great project, & well presented! Applied Science did a video 2 years ago on DIY EDM drilling ( kzfaq.info/get/bejne/qNZ4jKWrnLrTeX0.html ). It covers many of the issues documented in comments including the requirements for current control (BAXEDM), motion control with backup (DynaMotion), water filtration / conductivity, etc. Some of the issues he covers don't apply (such as rotating the 'cutting tool' (/drill tube) to ensure uniform erosion; with wire EDM you are constantly replacing the 'cutting tool' with new wire), but the core concepts are still the same.

EDM Engineer here. First of all, this is absolutely outstanding work. Secondly, we call it dielectric fluid, not coolant Thirdly, Wire EDM is much easier when feedback from the generator is used to control the feedrate. Fixed feedrates aren't very useful. I can't go into the feedback mechanism. You also would benefit from top and bottom flushing to ensure the spark gap is kept free of debris.

Wow! Nice work!

Awsome video guys. If i had any friends smart enough to appreciate what you guys are doing id definitely share the videos. Definitely looking forward to the trouble shooting portion of the project.

This is some very cool stuff I did subscribe and liked waiting on more

A scenario of total engineering process. Urgently subscribed

clicked for cool edm music machine and invested in 3d printing great video!

Great video, love the soldering iron for inserting the inserts

I was impressed with your system engineering.

This level of work deserves way more Subs!

I've used cutting boards for various projects. Quite strong and cheap.

Cool project guys ! ill be following

Something new and DIY. I'm in!

Super professional project 👍👍💫

I have been running wire edm for 10years now and everything about this video scares me. Great job

Great job, subscribed!

Awesome job, I have at least a decade running wire and cnc and manual sinker edm. You getting this far is great. Some tips I would tell you is wire is its own beast and where your flush cups are located in relation to work is crucial .005 above and below plus good flush and filter. I have no idea how your controlling the power but lower power until fully into cut switching polarity from table to electrode and adjusting on and off times in your spark. In my opinion finding an older machines power supply with the preloaded power settings would be the only way I could ever even attempt something like this. Great job again, very very impressive. PS you got me to sub.

very nice design long time i wish to have similar this machine. thanks a lot

Interesting topic. It went on and on and on.😀

Awesome engineering, very impressed

Can't wait to see this working!!!

Dude you are an amazing maker!

I worked on a wire edm machine years ago. That machine monitored the EDM current and reversed the feed whenever the current got to high. This backed the material off of contact with the material being cut, As soon as the current dropped to an in tolerance value it would switch back to normal feed direction again. Also Without current limiting wire failure seems certain. Series resistors seem more important than parallel capacitors. Good luck with this thing Wonderful video quality and great narrative.

Amazing project.

Nice video, like it, thanks for sharing :)

Eye liked because of the hands and the “Pleeaze” :-D

Impressive, keep it up you will achieve success

I'm looking forward to future updates on this 👍🤞

Great work. I'm an engineer myself and most people don't realize it takes many failures before you reach a point of success. Despite the failure, I still learned a lot in this video. Hope you'll keep working on this machine though, it's very interesting.

Interesting project. Another thing to consider is the spool collecting the wire may build up in the center only. Make a feeder that travels back and forth like a baitcaster fishing reel 👌

This is very interesting and I love the creativity, that said I bought a 1994 wire edm that has millions of yen in development costs. It works great for a $2500.00 machine and is still commercially viable for limited use . And it is 4 axis.

Great job... hats off

I once trainee at the Japanese renown wirecut edm factory( Its the compulsory in faculty final semester). I noticed in wiring diagram ,the submersible solution also had ion concentration control. By the way , I see some China adhoc CNC wirecut the workpiece in the air. No need submersible. A lttile bit more , I think to electrical the wire, remind me of the sparkling circuit might have close loop control in watching the spark behavior. I mean they can control wire current change in millisecond by feedback sensor on how to movement not to make wire touch to the workpiece.

I love you guys! Liked and subbed :)

Sir i love your channel it is best for practical learning

AAAAAHHHH!!!!! MAKERS THAT LET YOU ACTUALLY MAKE ALONG WITH THEM!? Not only is this a project i wanted to do...i need it... sooo liked and subbed!